This invention is concerned with a process for isolating non-ionic lipophilic substances from solution in water, organic solvents or miscible mixtures thereof which comprises treating the solution with an insoluble, synthetic resin which is an addition copolymer having a cross-linked structure and which optionally has been pre-treated with an organic solvent.
It is well known to use ion-exchange resins to selectively absorb certain ionically charged substances from aqueous systems, the absorption being the result of ionic forces. It is also known that insoluble synthetic resins of the type used in the present invention can effectively be employed to concentrate or separate organic solvents from aqueous mixtures thereof (U.S. Pat. No. 2,974,178) such as in the delivery of potable water from source water contaminated with traces of organic solvents.
Now, with the present invention, there is provided a method of concentrating or separating non-ionic lipophilic substances from solutions in water, organic solvents or miscible mixtures thereof which comprises treating the solution with an insoluble, synthetic resin which is an addition copolymer having a cross-linked structure followed by elution of the resin with an organic solvent.
The novel method is comparable in some respects to liquid-liquid extraction combining the benefits of a counter-current system, but one in which the "organic phase" is stationary and one in which there are no interfacial emulsions. Subsequent elution of the solvent-impregnated resin with an appropriate solvent or sequence of solvents permits recovery of the non-ionic lipophilic substances and separation thereof in situations where a multiplicity of such substances are present.